a farming resource blog

We bought a Jang hand push seeder this year from Mechanical Transplanter Company in Michigan. The seeders are made in Korea. We’re going to be networking with other farmers who have bought this seeder to collaborate on which rollers and gear settings work best for specific seeds. We don’t have any video of the seeder in action yet but I did come across an interesting setup of a gang of the seeders following behind a rotary hoe prepping the seed bed. An effective use of effeciency for sure.

Watching and reading about people that are growing on a scale much larger than yourself can be highly beneficial. It’s really easy to take ideas from a grander scale and adapt them to your own scale. I’ve been watching videos from a grower in Australia that goes by “bestleeks” Their farm is Peter Schreurs and Sons in Victoria Australia.

I love all of their innovative equipment. Much of which I think is built in house. But my favorite is the planting hole puncher for leeks. It reminds me of the Imperial Walkers in Star Wars

Since my friend Josh at Slowhand Farm turned me on to Eatwell Farm out of Dixon California, I’ve been thoroughly intrigued by all the great systems approaches that Nigel has towards vegetable farming. He finds innovative tools to accomplish his tasks but always in a way that has his workers best interests in mind.

Here are two videos that illustrate a couple of their awesome cultivating tools

Nigel has a great blog too that I enjoy reading and getting updates on what he’s got going on at Eatwell.

Some fellow farmers out of Minnesota with an electric conversion of their cultivating tractor. This idea is really starting to gain a little momentum. Check out the video of them seeding with the tractoring too.

And here’s a look at their garlic digger Simple is good.

I’m starting my search around the net to see what kind of info I can start drumming up from other folks. Seems like we’re hitting a certain point that many newer farmers are blogging or at least online. Let’s get the info flowing.

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I’ve had several people ask what my secret was to hilling potatoes. Secret? No secret, just two disk hillers mounted on a tool bar and drive really fast. We hill our potatoes 3 times before they get too big to drive over the beds with our tractor. We could get one more pass if we had a high clearance tractor but that’s not going to happen anytime soon. It’s been great having the big disks to hill with. I purchased them from the folks at Market Farm in Pennsylvania. They’re basically one of the few full service implement dealers for small veggie equipment in the US. There’s a few others around but they seem to have the widest array of tools.

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We bought a new rototiller this spring to run behind the higher horsepower Landini tractor. We bought a 64″ model that would till the wheel tracks as I was making beds. This would help reduce the weed pressure that always happens in the wheel tracks. (Before I just used a 4 foot model that would till the 4 foot bed but left the wheel tracks to grow weeds like crazy. We would then have to come back continuously with the walk behind BCS tiller- A real time killing project) I decided to try a row marking system that mounted right on the flap of the tiller, allowing the wheels to float with the terrain. Also because the wheel tracks are being tilled- the tire tread tracks being what I used to line up for the next beds- I added two extra marking wheels on the outside to mark the edge of the bed. All in all it works pretty well. There was some bending and adjusting of the marking wheel mounts to get the angle with the ground just right, but other than that it’s worked pretty well. Let me know if you have any comments or additions to this creation.

Yeah I know, I haven’t posted anything for awhile. My excuse? Well, it is spring after all. We’ve been transplanting and seeding like mad, in between rain storms and my view has pretty much been this:

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Pretty decent quality video considering it’s with my phone and I’m rototilling……

Ok, so coming up is my latest equipment adventure. I’m working on making my “ground driven pull behind” fertilizer spreader into a “front mount 12 volt motor driven” fertilizer spreader.

Pictures and video to come.

I was just chatting with my friend Vince today at farmers market about grains. Many things to ponder when one sees the coming rise of fuel prices. When does it become economically viable to start producing grains for sale on a smaller scale? Commodities don’t currently allow for this to happen due to economic constraints. Some fellow farmers have gotten together a blog for such a discussion. Please check it out if this interests you.

All the folks involved do their homework on whatever topic they’re focused on. Good stuff. I’d also love to see some collaboration from outside the Oregon farmer contingency…anyone else know grains?

When we started to tractor cultivate with the Electric G, we needed to make sure that the spacing between rows was very precise and consistent. Many larger farms use transplanters or vacuum seeders to set the spacing between rows. We transplant by hand and direct seed by a hand-push seeder. The solution I came up with is a simple tool bar mounted on the back of the tiller with bars made from 5/8″ flat stock with lawn mower wheels mounted at the base. I had originally thought that disc openers (like what one sees on a seed drill) would work, but I couldn’t find any used ones and I think the lawn mower wheels work better anyway. They actually firm up the soil within the row to be planted and seem to preserve some moisture this way. Best of all, this system of mounting to the tiller saves me another pass, another implement switch, as well as some fuel. Check out the video and feel free to email me with any questions.

Here’s our soil block recipe that we use. Sometimes we’ll add more compost to a mix depending on how much fertility we feel the compost has. We mix our soil in an old mortar mixer. That’s the type of mixers that have paddles and actually churn the mix instead of a concrete mixer that just spins and turns the mix. We always mix the ingredients dry first (You’ll notice on the recipe it says “mix” after a series of ingredients are added. This helps you end up with a even mix) and then add the water. How much moisture? Well that’s where the artisan skills come into play. Probably more than you think but not so much you end up with a soup. And remember, the peat moss absorbs a lot of moisture over time so if you wet it down, leave, and come back you’ll generally find a much drier mix than you started with. Ideally I aim for a mix that I can grip in a handful and squeeze a fair amount of water out when my grip is closed.

How’s that for non specific in terms of moisture? Email me if you need more input.